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Friday, January 8, 2010

Possible Bigfoot Accidently Captured on IMAX Film?

The possible creature is seen to the left of center in the photo. Notice how
tall it is compared to the caribou seen from appoximately the same
distance to the right of the frame.

Several times a year, I receive information that somebody has filmed or photographed a sasquatch. Upon examination, a certain percentage of these are obvious hoaxes or misidentifications. A smaller number show what are either humans or sasquatches. These are usually from such a distance that one cannot tell either way. Probably even more are what the bigfooting community calls a "blobsquatch". These are the amorphous black blobs in the brush that kind of look like a vaguely sasquatch-like shape, if you held your head just right and stood on one foot in the right kind of light.

A typical blobsquatch.

Last October, I received word that a possible saquatch was found to be in the background of a piece of documentary film footage. The footage was from a documentary called Great North, and the segment in question was filmed in Ontario, Canada nearly a decade ago.

Click the pic to buy the flick.

When I saw the footage on Hulu.com I wasn't too excited, but put the footage squarely in the second category: probably a guy or a bigfoot.

The scene in question shows footage of a great caribou migration. In the background of the shot, not far from where the caribou are running is a large black figure which pops up from an unseen ditch and runs parallel to the ungulates for a short distance before ducking down and disappearing from view. It appears at approximately the 9 minute and 18 second mark. The possible bigfoot is not obvious at all, and it only appears for a few seconds. Look behind the caribou and slightly to the right. Hopefully the movement of a small black blob will catch your attention.

A full-frame screen capture indicating the location of the subject in question.

When one views the footage at full-screen (by putting the mouse over the footage, controls show up on the sides of the screen. One of these changes it to "full-screen" mode) on a large monitor at high resolution, a human-like figure can be seen from the waist up. It looks like it might be a person wearing all black and running with a slightly stooped gait. There is what could be interpreted as an arm swing. It was interesting enough to watch a couple times, but it was basically a moving black blob with what appeared to have swinging arms.

Watch the low-res version of the clip that possibly shows a sasquatch
(You'll be subjected to a short advertisement)

Besides the creature just looking like it might be a bigfoot, I thought it was significant that the creature was found with an ungulate herd. It is my strong belief that deer and elk make up much of the sasquatch diet. In this region, caribou would be the food of choice.

I emailed back to the person who brought this to my attention to tell him that I thought it was possible this footage showed a sasquatch, but to my eyes the details weren't there to do much with. I then went back to my life and didn't devote much more thought to it.

Earlier this week, I had a conversation with Matt Moneymaker about this footage. He told me that he had an opportunity to view the Great North DVD on a high-definition, big-screen television, and it was more impressive than can be seen on any normal-sized computer monitor.

The most important thing Matt told me about the footage is that it was fimed with an IMAX camera. IMAX cameras are big. Not only are the cameras themselves big (100 pounds or so), but the images they record are big. Twice as big as normal film. That's why they look so amazing on large screens.

Big means detail. The bigger the image on the original negative, the more detail that was recorded. It is possible that enlarged digital images from the footage could yield amazing images. Publicly sharing these images could have some influence in the rising tide of scientific acceptance of the species.

There is an article posted on the BFRO website about this footage with a call to action to look at the original IMAX negatives with a closer eye. I hope somebody with more time than I have steps forward to carry this torch.

Besides drawing your attention to it, the only thing I can really do at this point about this footage is to think how cool it would be to see this footage on the big, big, big screen: in the IMAX theater. Would I see a life-sized sasquatch pacing the caribou right in front of my eyes? It's at least possible.

I'm thinking this clip might show a sasquatch. We'll probably never know. After all, if sasquatches are real animals (which they obviously are if you look at the data) then there are probably some people who have filmed them. And some of those people probably filmed them on accident.

Of course, this clip might just show a person. What do you think? Post a comment below.

Update 1/14/09

Matt Moneymaker and Wally Hersom of the BFRO have determined that the figure was in fact a human. Kudos to them for following through with the investigation and solving this mystery. To read about their discovery and process, click here.

There looks to be a possible second bigfoot standing well up on the hill behind the first one. It's height changes slightly during the pan, as if it is not a stump. It's color matches that of the hairy biped in the foreground.

Upon further inspection, there could be a half dozen to a dozen possible bigfoot either standing or croutching on the hill beyond. There seems to be a cluster of about 5 right around the apparently standing subject who is directly behind the primary subject by maybe 300 meters.

On this one you really don't need to take MM's word. Just look at the video they took from a Blu-ray playing the footage. Plain to see it is a crew member. Whether being where he was was smart or not is besides the point. Let's not see imaginary things, best in trying to have credibility is to always think horses when hearing hoofbeats until proven otherwise.